Intentionally or unintentionally, predictably or unpredictably, the folk revival of the 1960s gave way to the era of the singer/songwriter era of the 1970s. If any one artist served as a bridge between the two events it would be Joni Mitchell. Sure, Bob Dylan was a singer/songwriter, but his songs were more akin to traditional folk music in that they were focused on social issues with the singer largely an observer. Mitchell’s songs were more participatory, more personal and confessional in nature.
Perhaps her best remembered songs are “Both Sides Now” (which was a hit for Judy Collins in 1968), “Big Yellow Taxi,” “The Circle Game,” “Woodstock,” Chelsea Morning,” “The River,” and “Help Me.” With over 1200 recorded versions, “Both Sides Now” is Mitchell’s most covered song. Ian & Sylvia, Tom Rush, Counting Crows, Crosby, Stills, & Nash, Dave Van Ronk, Neil Diamond, K.D. Lang, Amy Grant, Prince, and others also have recorded songs by Mitchell. In recognition of her impact as both a singer and songwriter, Mitchell was inducted into both the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1997.
Mitchell began life as Roberta Joan Anderson on November 7, 1943, in Fort Macleod, a small municipality in Alberta, Canada. She was stricken with polio at the age of nine. Doctors predicted she would never walk again. Yet, after spending nights in the children’s ward singing at the top of her lungs, she recovered. (Like Neil Young who also was afflicted with the disease, Mitchell was born before the polio vaccine was developed by Jonas Salk.)
She learned to play guitar from a Pete Seeger instruction book. A residual weakness in her left hand lead Mitchell to experiment with the open guitar tunings that would become a hallmark of her unique style. She went off to the Alberta College of Art in Calgary not long after learning how to play.
Like many teenagers of the late 1950s and early 1960s, Mitchell loved to dance to rock and roll. Yet, she was attracted to the more intellectual aspects of the early 1960s folk movement. She left college after one year and moved to Toronto to join the burgeoning folk scene. It was there she married her first husband, the folk singer Chuck Mitchell. It would be decades later before the story behind the marriage came to light.
Mitchell became pregnant when she was 21 and dirt poor. The father, Brad MacMath, was an artist from Calgary who had moved on to California when she was three months pregnant. Joni gave birth to a baby girl on February 19, 1965. Her marriage to Chuck Mitchell largely was one of convenience, although they stayed together until early 1967.
An unmarried daughter becoming pregnant in the mid-1960s was disgraceful. “It ruined you in a social sense,” Mitchell would tell the LA Times in 1997. “You have no idea what the stigma was. It was like you murdered somebody.”
Mitchell named her daughter Kelly Dale Anderson and gave her up for adoption at six months of age. Although no one realized it at the time, the song “Little Green” – as in Kelly Green – was Mitchell’s story of the birth and loss of her child, with the hope that Little Green would “… have a happy ending.” The story of Little Green did have a happy ending, although not the one Mitchell perhaps envisioned.
The adoptive parents of Kelly Dale Anderson – teachers David and Ida Gibb – renamed her Kilauren Gibb. Kilauren was 27 and expecting her own child when the Gibb’s told her she was adopted. She spent five years searching for her mother and the two were finally reunited in 1997. They have maintained a close relationship ever since.
Mitchell would marry again in 1982, this time to musician/producer Larry Klein. They would divorce in 1994. She had a better known relationship with Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills, and Nash. They met in Ottawa in 1968 while Nash was still with the Hollies. The chemistry between the two was immediate and for the next couple of years they were nearly inseparable. Ultimately things soured and Mitchell walked out of their Laurel Canyon home for good in 1970.
Two famous songs came out of Nash and Mitchell’s time together. “Our House” was written by Nash to help deal with the heartbreak of losing Mitchell. The line “I’ll light the fire, you place the flowers in the vase you bought today” is according to Nash, word for word from a conversation he and Mitchell had one day.
For Mitchell’s part, she wrote “River” to deal with the guilt she felt. The guilt is expressed in the lines: “I’m so hard to handle/I’m selfish and I’m sad/Now I’ve gone and lost the best baby/That I ever had.” Despite parting ways, the two remain close. It is said Nash sends flowers to Mitchell every year on her birthday.
Rolling Stone dubbed Mitchell “Old Lady Of The Year” early in her career. It was not a compliment. Whatever Rolling Stone may have thought of her, countless others embraced her vision, honesty, integrity, innovation, courage and eloquence. She is an 18 time Grammy nominee with 10 wins, the latest coming on February 4th of this year for Joni Mitchell At Newport [Live]. Her awards and accolades are too numerous to mention in their entirety but they include honorary doctorates from McGill University and Berklee College of Music, the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, the Order of Canada, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Mitchell has had health issues in recent years. Her voice has been faltering in recent years due to complications from polio. She sought treatment for Morgellons disease, which the Mayo Clinic describes as “an uncommon, unexplained skin disorder characterized by sores, crawling sensations on and under the skin, and Fiber-like Filaments emerging from the sores.”
And in 2015 Mitchell suffered a brain aneurysm. There was much speculation about her ability to speak but regardless of speculation, she relearned how to walk and play the guitar. To everyone’s surprise and delight, she made her first ever appearance at the Grammys in 2024 singing “Both Sides Now.”
Joni Mitchell was inducted into the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame (FARHOF) over the weekend of April 19 and 20, 2024 at the Boch Center in Boston as a Solo Living Artist.
[Material in this article was obtained from the following: The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (3rd Edition); Biography.com; The Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame; The Canadian Encyclopedia; Far Out Magazine (September 6, 2022); and jonimitchell.com.]
Next up – Emmylou Harris
